Vehicle airbags present an injury risk when they accidentally inflate, striking an out-of-position or unsecured occupant or maintainer. Existing airbag anti-inflation safety devices electronically disable the explosive inflator of the airbag. However, the “ARMED” or “SAFE” state of the safety measure may not always be visible to a maintainer performing work on the seat. In some instances, parts of the seat must be removed to see if the airbag has been put into a safe mode against initiation. Thus, accidental deployment can occur when the system is thought to be in a “SAFE” state, but the system is actually in an “ARMED” state.
In addition, existing safety devices may also fail electronically, due to failed solder connections, resulting in injury of the maintainers. The existing safety features rely on preventing initiation of the explosive inflators and may provide no protection if that occurs. Further, existing airbag safety-features do not destroy the envelope of the airbag itself before it can impact the human occupant. Therefore, an improved airbag anti-inflation safety device may be desirable.